At a certain point in capitalism, a wealthy person can get enough money to live comfortably the rest of your life. If you decide to continue to grow your wealth from there, you're essentially not just making money for yourself, but so others can't have it.
I have a feeling that number is well below a billion, but I'm no economist.
It's called hoarding and it's an unhealthy habit so why isn't anybody doing anything? Because if you give them enough of that money they won't complain.
if they have to do that to enough people we would have inequality solved
There was a study from 2010 that said that the happiness already plateaus somewhere around 75k annually. But more recent studies suggest that for some people, more money means more happiness well beyond that, and for some it doesn't. Basically, if you're generall an unhappy person, money doesn't help much. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/does-more-money-correlate-greater-happiness-Penn-Princeton-research
But I agree that owning more than 1 billion (or even 100 million) is just useless hoarding, since no one can spend that much money in a lifetime (at least without decadent spending for spending's sake).
But you miss that having the money isn't necessarily the point they have power and control over resources people and machines as well as influence in government
I would argue that all those things are even more likely to not make you happy.
Unless you already have a tendency towards psychopathic behaviors, the they probably
(not a psychologist)
Also not a psychologist, but attended a four hour lecture on psychopaths recently (out of interest). I don't think happiness as a concept exists for actual psychopaths, because they don't really feel emotions the same way.
Nearly all social animals would be punished in some way for hoarding resources from the group. Between loss of social status all the way to being killed. Our closest relatives like apes straight up murder individuals that do this.
It's a mental illness. We'll probably find out it was caused by lead or micro plastics if our species survives this time.
For now. I believe the correct call to action involves guillotines. We can dial it back if things get better.
If you decide to continue to grow your wealth from there, you're essentially not just making money for yourself, but so others can't have it.
This is a zero-sum fallacy. The size of the economy isn’t fixed. It continues to grow each year. The hyper productive people you’re referring to are disproportionately responsible for that growth, and they are disproportionately the recipients of that growth. My father was one of those people. Working 18 hours every day for 30 years. It led to a divorce and our family falling apart, but fuck did he generate a lot of economic value for the world, his company, and himself. He didn’t steal it from you. He created it.
I'm sorry your dad cared more about money than family, that must have been really hard on all of you.
Thanks man, it did suck :( We still have a strained relationship many years later.
While true, the growth of the economy has been wildly outpaced by the rate of hoarding at the top. After all that extra work, how much better off was your dad after everyone above him benefitted?
I had a shower thought this morning:
At a certain point in capitalism, a wealthy person can get enough money to live comfortably the rest of your life. If you decide to continue to grow your wealth from there, you're essentially not just making money for yourself, but so others can't have it.
I have a feeling that number is well below a billion, but I'm no economist.
It's called hoarding and it's an unhealthy habit so why isn't anybody doing anything? Because if you give them enough of that money they won't complain.
if they have to do that to enough people we would have inequality solved
There was a study from 2010 that said that the happiness already plateaus somewhere around 75k annually. But more recent studies suggest that for some people, more money means more happiness well beyond that, and for some it doesn't. Basically, if you're generall an unhappy person, money doesn't help much. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/does-more-money-correlate-greater-happiness-Penn-Princeton-research
But I agree that owning more than 1 billion (or even 100 million) is just useless hoarding, since no one can spend that much money in a lifetime (at least without decadent spending for spending's sake).
But you miss that having the money isn't necessarily the point they have power and control over resources people and machines as well as influence in government
I would argue that all those things are even more likely to not make you happy.
Unless you already have a tendency towards psychopathic behaviors, the they probably
(not a psychologist)
Also not a psychologist, but attended a four hour lecture on psychopaths recently (out of interest). I don't think happiness as a concept exists for actual psychopaths, because they don't really feel emotions the same way.
Nearly all social animals would be punished in some way for hoarding resources from the group. Between loss of social status all the way to being killed. Our closest relatives like apes straight up murder individuals that do this.
It's a mental illness. We'll probably find out it was caused by lead or micro plastics if our species survives this time.
For now. I believe the correct call to action involves guillotines. We can dial it back if things get better.
This is a zero-sum fallacy. The size of the economy isn’t fixed. It continues to grow each year. The hyper productive people you’re referring to are disproportionately responsible for that growth, and they are disproportionately the recipients of that growth. My father was one of those people. Working 18 hours every day for 30 years. It led to a divorce and our family falling apart, but fuck did he generate a lot of economic value for the world, his company, and himself. He didn’t steal it from you. He created it.
I'm sorry your dad cared more about money than family, that must have been really hard on all of you.
Thanks man, it did suck :( We still have a strained relationship many years later.
While true, the growth of the economy has been wildly outpaced by the rate of hoarding at the top. After all that extra work, how much better off was your dad after everyone above him benefitted?
I agree that the distribution should be adjusted.